Covenants
Sons of Man
And his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. – Saint John
The first story ends with the description "it was very good." But does that match our experience of the world today? At times, yes; but at other times, no. And so, something must of happened which recognized that while at some point it may have been very good, that doesn't necessarily describe the current state of the world. What does describe the state of the world today? Well, in the marvelous efficiency of the bible, we get our answers of what went wrong in the second part of the second story of the bible, the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
In the first part, quickly we revisit the creation of man. We hear that God forms man of dust from the ground and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life so that man becomes a living soul. There is so much to unpack there, but at a minimum we again see God's breath (aka spirit), this time not hovering over the waters, but now being breathed into man to make what was formerly only the dust of the earth transformed into a living soul. We are animated by God. God takes the chemicals of the universe and transforms into a living being, body and soul. Saint Paul summarizes for us, "thus it is written, 'The first Adam became a living soul'; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit."
And of course, in this case, the pattern of the old stories is repeated in the new stories, so when Christ resurrects Saint John is very careful to note "Jesus breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if your retain the sins of any, they are retained.'" (John 20:22-23). We are starting to see the dual nature of Christ in how the New Testament writers understand Jesus. For he acts not only like the son of God, but also God himself.
For the Church, this is hidden confirmation of Christ's divinity and also his humanity. In one sense, he is the last Adam (Adam being the hebrew word for mankind), so he is the last Man. And this last Man does the very work given to God alone, that is giving the breath of life to his followers so that they are born anew in him. So, the last Man has divine behaviors, and not divine in the sense of simply being like God but divine in the sense of being God. That God alone has the authority to impart his breath, or as we will see later, like how God alone has the authority to forgive sin.
The second story of Genesis goes onto describe two trees in the garden of Eden (that is, Paradise) - the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil - before continuing to describe the water flowing out of Eden which becomes four important rivers. And here, we are given the primordial command to mankind, before he receives with his wife the all important "be fruitful and multiply" from the first story of creation, and that first command from God is "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." Freedom and obedience, for God knows what is eternally good for his children. Adam receives this divine command while he is alone with God. The woman, his wife, has yet to enter the story.
Soon after Adam receives the command from God, we have the first time something in the sacred stories is mentioned that is not good, "it is not good that man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him." Before God fulfills this promise to Adam, he gives Adam the work of naming the creatures. God creates and God entrusts his son to name. But in naming all the animals there was still not found a "helper fit for him." There is no helper that can help him fulfill fully the great command to come which is to be fruitful and multiply. So, in what is the first scriptural hint of the passion and resurrection of our Christ, God gets to work.
"So the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,
'This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.'
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed."
Saint Paul would later interpret this story for the Church in his letter to Ephesians. In describing the glories of marriage, he briefly quotes the passage above and ends with his commentary, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."
In like manner, Saint John poetically provides the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy of Christ and his bride when he records the story of the Christ. He writes, "But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierces his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water." We have yet to cover the details and importance in the covenants of blood and water, that is a thread we will see developed more in the stories to come, so here we won't go into fulness of detail on that point, but what we can cover at this stage is that like the first Adam was put into a deep sleep so that God could fashion a bride for his son from his side, this first story of marriage finds its greater fulfillment when the last Adam (Christ) takes his sleep (of death) and has a bride (the Church) fashioned from his side. Hence, Saint Paul can provide the commentary, "This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church."
There is so much depth in the ancient stories, and we will continue to see how they clearly point to their fulfillment in Christ and his bride. And for all the romantics out there, it is beautiful to see that man's first poetry was uttered at the sight of his bride. Talk about love at first sight! And the beauty of innocence in marriage is that they were "naked and unashamed." Let us note a few things about this first encounter between the first Adam ('Man') and the first woman in the garden of Eden. But as we unpack this story, it may be helpful to understand a few items about interpreting sacred scripture.
The Church teaches that there are two senses of scripture critical to interpretation. One is the literal, the second is the spiritual. And within the spiritual, there are 3 main types of interpretation - allegorical (how to see Christ), moral (how to apply the teachings to our own lives), and anagogical (a fancy word for the ultimate ends, the ultimate destiny of humanity). Our interpretation always starts with the literal, understanding the author's intention in crafting the story and taking it at face value. Once we understand the literal, we can search by the light of the holy Spirit for the spiritual meaning.
And so, in the context of the story of Adam and his woman in the garden of Eden, we have the literal story of the first man and woman in marriage. It is helpful to understand that ancient Hebrew, like today, names have meaning. And often, the meaning of names help unlock the deeper meaning to the ancient stories. And so, the story of Adam can also be translated as the story of man, the story of mankind, or the story of earth. And so, Adam becomes a story about man and mankind and earth. It is a story about a particular person and a universal type of man, a story that shares what happened on earth. And I believe understanding this makes the ancient stories more beautiful, for it hints at God's purpose. But also, it helps understand how utterly beautiful some of the new testament commentaries are like Paul's letter to the Corinthians, "The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven."
But knowing the meaning of names not only unlocks the literal understanding on both an intimate and personal level, but also as a type and thereby universal, but there are spiritual senses of the scripture that are unlocked as well, many of which the new testament writers teach us the methods to help us unlock the deeper meaning.
And so, for the spiritual meaning of this story about man and woman, we have Christ teach his disciples an example of the moral takeaway, which includes the teaching of the unbreakable bond of marriage. For example, in Matthew's gospel (Chapter 19), the Pharisees create tests for Jesus and one of them is about the lawfulness of divorce. Christ responds by quoting this passage from Genesis, "Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and he said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one'? So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder."
Jesus uses this story from Genesis to extract the moral teaching that in the New Covenant there is no divorce. Something that the Church maintains thousands of years later, even when society decrees otherwise, as critical for the New Covenant - vows are meant to be kept. Therefore, a sacramental marriage is unbreakable, for we are made in the image of the man of heaven. And he keeps his vows to his bride. So do we.
And so, when we look for the spiritual meaning, Christ offers a moral interpretation.
And as we saw, Saint Paul gives us an allegorical interpretation, for the story represents the great mystery of Christ and the church.
And for the anagogical interpretation, we can look to Saint John for an example of the interpretation that unlocks mankind's ultimate destiny. For his Book of Revelation reads, "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Our ultimate destiny is blessed union in eternity where we are naked and unashamed before the great lover of our souls, our bridegroom. God's children will experience eternal union with the blessed triune God where we rejoice, "I have found the one whom my soul loves."
These are simply three examples of the types of spiritual meanings drawn from this very beautiful and brief story of man and woman in Genesis. There is more.
For we saw Jesus is the last Adam, his bride is the Church. But who is the last Woman, or the new Eve? Thankfully, the new testament writers make this explicit as well. We only need look to Saint John's record of the wedding of Cana, for Jesus himself identifies the new Woman for us.
Let us remember the background and cultural context, Adam has authority to name the creatures. And for his wedding, God causes him to fall under a deep sleep. When he wakes, he sees his bride fashioned from his side. And he bursts out into song, the first lines of poetry uttered by man was about his wife, the glorious work of his creator, the capstone of creation. Man ('Adam') sings, "This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, for she was taken out of Man." Not only did Adam sing to his bride, but he named her 'Woman.'
Nowadays, man might not name his wife at their wedding, but he does give her his name, for we are acting like our first father in giving our wife a name. Importantly from the scriptural point of view, Adam names his wife Woman, and so the name Woman represents the peak of sinless creation. Before sin entered the world, male and female they were created and Woman was her name.
And at Christ's first wedding, on the third day, to end the first week of John's gospel, Jesus performs a miracle. He's simply doing similar work as his eternal Father who performed a miracle at the first wedding of mankind at the end of the first week of creation. And at the wedding of Cana, when the mother of Jesus comes to him to let him know there is no wine, Jesus let's us know who his mom is. She is Woman.
Let us visit the story briefly.
'On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, "they have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "O Woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."'
The next time Jesus repeats the name of his mother, "Woman," is when he is on the cross and his hour is here, the moment he says, "it is finished," just before his bride is fashioned from his side.
Jesus calls her "Woman" because it is a sign of the utmost respect he has for his mother. In the mind of an ancient Hebrew, there could be no better name for a female. For "Woman" represents the peak of sinless humanity, the capstone of God's great creation, when all was very good, she was called Woman. Jesus the sinless Adam is telling us who the sinless Woman is, it is his mother.
When we wonder where church doctrines come from, teachings like the trinity, the dual nature of Christ, or in this recent case, the immaculate conception. Well, they come from divine revelation. They come from Jesus. And many of them are hidden in plain sight, not only in God's works but also God's word and first sacred stories for humanity. And the Church is entrusted with the revelation of the divine message of the good news of Jesus Christ. And her mission is to keep that revelation in its fullness, not cutting corners but upholding the fullness of truth, including hard to fathom teaching like the the dual nature of Christ and the woman's immaculate conception.
And all this may be beautiful, but it is yet to explain what went wrong. Well, that comes from the second part of the story in Genesis. In short, Man and Woman ate from the forbidden tree. We disobeyed our Creator. Now, I have always been perplexed by the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For, how can God who is perfect and knows not evil create a tree of the knowledge of good and evil? But as many others have noted, evil is not the opposite of good, evil is the absence of good. In fact, more specifically, evil is the absence of God. And that's what happened.
God does not create evil. But as creator, as designer, if people use his design in ways they were not intended for, well, then evil is able to occur. That is how evil comes into existence in a world created very good. In fact, due to God's gift of freedom, evil is not only a possibility but a reality. And so God has knowledge of good and evil because he knows the right way. And it is us, his children, to learn the right way and obey. But where we disobey the good and perfect God, where we heed not his commands, evil is brought onto the earth.
And when Man and Woman doubted God, and mankind fell into sin, that is the moment humanity came to know evil. When our first father disobeyed our Designer, we came to know evil, and not know it intellectually like God might have a concept of what evil is because he knows his design and his purposes, but we came to know it intimately for we became aligned and one with evil because we disregard his good and perfect purposes. In short, sons of God behaving like children of the devil. In paradise, we had one command, and didn't uphold it. But that one command was humanity's break from God's perfect design. And so sin entered the world. And death with it. And that wasn't good, but God has a plan for his beloved children.
It is important to consider that it is not just humans and God in this scenario. We have an eternal enemy of our souls, the devil and all aligned with him. And this second part of the second story in Genesis describes the state of the world today. For, the perfection of man and woman being "naked and unashamed" is interrupted with the cruel interaction between the Devil and the Woman, between the serpent and the perfection of God's creation. And man failed to do his job to care fully for God's home and his daughter, the capstone of creation.
"Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons."
Possibly, some of the most important lines of all of scripture until the coming of Christ, for it perfectly describes what is wrong with the world. God has given us a command, aligned perfectly with his will and design, but there is an enemy of our souls who is asking us to doubt the will of God our heavenly Father in our hearts and disobey his command. In the case of the Woman in Paradise, before she falls into disobedience, she adds to God's command. So many things to say on this interchange, but a few to note are that at some point, for some reason, the Woman has added to the command. She adds the "neither shall you touch it" which has become a human teaching, for the divine revelation wasn't about touch but eating. But she did rightly perceive that death would be the consequence.
Another point to consider, the devil helped mankind doubt God with what amounted to nothing, like Shakespeare's villains. He simply planted an idea in the Woman's mind that was true and deceitful in the same breath. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." As God's children, made in the image and likeness they were already like God. In fact, eating of the forbidden fruit would make them less like God, they would mar the image of God in themselves. For God doesn't know evil in the sense that we came to know evil, for He is perfect. We, on the other hand, have come to know evil, for in disobedience we practice evil and show ourselves to be the children of the devil when we follow his ways. The consequence of sin is death. As Isaiah the prophet wrote about our experience in Paradise, "we made a covenant with death."
But our God is not just designer, but perfect Father. And he had a plan to lovingly restore his children.
And the plan starts with confession and proceeds to penance. First he confronts Adam, for Adam is responsible as protector as well as the one who receives the command from God before his bride was fashioned from his side. But man, weakened by sin, now hides from God, fears his heavenly Father, and struggles with the truth. When asked to give an accounting of his behavior, man responds to God, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate." Man confirms he ate, but almost passively blames God for the helper He gave Adam, in a weak attempt to deflect full responsibility.
Being a good Father, God asks the woman her side of the story, and she says, "the serpent beguiled me, and I ate." At hearing their confessions, God promises salvation for his children and gives them their penance. In our modern world, we might recoil at the thought of penance, but penance is a gift to God's children. Penance is our prescription for healing our souls.
First, He tells the serpent among other things, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." The woman and her seed would be at everlasting enmity with the devil. And while the devil might hurt us, the woman and her seed will be forever victorious.
For the rest of salvation history the people of God would be looking for the woman and her seed. This is one reason the Queen Mother in the Judean kingdom was always so important, the ancient hebrews were looking for the woman and her seed. Hence Saint Matthew let's us know, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit." Behold, the woman and her seed.
And we already discussed Saint John's record of Jesus' testimony, calling his own mother, "Woman."
Likewise, Saint Luke chronicles the fulfillment of the woman and her seed. For Saint Luke gives us perhaps a little more detail on the virgin from Nazareth. And whereas the woman in Eden is visited by Satan, a fallen angel, the woman in Nazareth is visited by the Angel Gabriel, a heavenly angel, who announces God's plan of salvation. And whereas the woman in Eden doubted the word of God, the woman in Nazareth heeds the angel's message and immaculately bears the word of God in her womb. And whereas the woman in Eden would eat of the forbidden tree, the woman in Nazareth would give bread of life to the world. And whereas with sadness and shame we hear the woman in Paradise's words about the bad angel, "the serpent beguiled me and I ate," with everlasting joy we hear and heed the virgin's word to the good angel, "let it be to me according to your word." Truly, the handmaid of the Lord. Behold, the woman and her seed.
Our heavenly Father had a plan of love hidden in the stories of old, that slowly unfolds his mercy for his children. When he gives the consequence to their sin to the woman, and then the man, we have so many amazing fulfillments in Jesus, that it is impossible that even all the books of the world could be written to accurately unveil the beauty of God's design. Only the brevity of poetry allows us to express even a small part of the infinite commentary we could offer on this early story. But we shall continue with a couple more important items sparked by the story of Paradise and fulfilled in the story of Jesus, especially for those living in the fullness of the New Covenant.
Once God has revealed the consequences to the woman and man, which include pain in labor (childbirth and work), the lordship of man, a cursing of the ground which will yield thorn and thistle amidst our food, and the return to dust we will experience in death, the sacred storyteller confirms the Woman is given a new name. For the scripture writer follows the penance for mankind with the following verses, "The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the LORD God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins, and clothed them." Again, sinless creation she is called Woman, but now the woman under the effects of sin was named Eve. We need a new Man and a New Eve to undo the effects of sin and model obedience of God.
But in that first story of mankind, there was sin, and there was a death that day. Only, it was a sacrifice.
An animal laid down his life, most likely a lamb, for Adam and Eve needed a covering for their skin due to the impact of sin. They need to be clothed with garments of animal skins. A life was offered to God for the sin of mankind. What man thought could be hidden by plants and leaves in fact required the death of an innocent animal. And even in this first story of sin and consequence, we see sacrifice for sin play an important role. But we will come to see how the sacrifice of an innocent lamb would not fully cover for the sin of man, a better sacrifice would one day be needed, but the nature of that sacrifice that fulfills will be drawn out and explained in the stories and covenants to come to the sons of God. But one key attribute is mentioned to conclude this first story of sin. And it involves the curious mention of the tree of life.
After God shares the consequences with man and woman, God says the curious words, "'Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever' - therefore the Lord God sent him forth form the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life."
Man could not eat of the tree of life in a state of sin. From a Catholic perspective, once again, we have an incredible insight about the need to approach the eucharist in a state of holiness. Hence, Saint Paul writes to the Corinthians, "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup." An unworthy manner is in a state of sin. A state of grace is the proper manner.
But, what is important for us to consider is that in the oldest story we have the hope of eating of the tree of life in a state of grace so that we could live forever. We can't live forever in a state of sin, but we can live forever in a state of obedience. In God's grace, we cannot live forever in enmity with God. For who can withstand an eternity of being set against God, the creator of all that is good and beautiful and true? And just like the ancient Hebrews were looking for the "woman and her seed," they were also looking for the tree of life, the one guarded by the cherubim which we are barred from until a final and proper atonement for sin happens which allows us to one day again eat of the tree of life in purity and holiness. For in that state, a state full of grace, we can live forever with God.
And, as God would have it, Jesus came to his home telling his people about this tree. But it did not make sense to them. But every gospel writer includes Christ's testimony about this tree. Only, for some reason, like many of the scriptures, the full beauty of the teaching is veiled. But for those with ears to hear hear the gospel writers tell us about the passion of our Lord, we see that the prophecy of the first Adam and the tree of life is fulfilled in the conclusion of the last supper of the last Adam. Yes, the fulfillment of the prophecy of the tree of life in paradise is found in the crucifixion of the New Covenant on Calvary. Christ's cross of death is the eternal tree of life.
Hence, from the cross he says "it is finished," for he has given his flesh for his people on the tree of life. The cross of death bears the fruit of eternal life. And Christ's bride, fashioned from his side, is able to eat of the tree of life, the tree that appears to the rest of the world an instrument of death. The cross of Christ is in fact dead wood transformed into an instrument of salvation and indeed our true tree of life.
And so, the sin of the first covenant of mankind is annulled by the last covenant with Christ. "For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." Christ has destroyed death. And all who die in him simply fall asleep to be awaken in the resurrection of eternal life.
It may seem miraculous because it is. And while the details of fulfillment may have been hidden to God's children, unknown at the time of the ancient stories being written down, they were revealed by the light of the holy Spirit in the New Covenant. These prophecies and promises would be veiled until the resurrection of our Lord. For God announces his plan, and the holy Spirit that reveals it. And even nature, God's work, testifies to the true resurrection. Seeds die into the earth to only bloom again as plants. Humans lay down to sleep only to be awaken to a new day. Sleep and resurrection are entwined in our daily life as a testament to our creator and the passion of our Lord. What we do daily, he does for eternity.
Before we end this discussion on the original covenant with mankind and our entering into covenant with death, we should consider the aftermath. The next story of scripture has not only death but murder. Not only is death introduced into humanity, but the sons of Man commit murder and fast forward death. And worse, murder between brothers and kinsmen.
So, we will not only return to the dust of the earth, but the next story that brother sends brother to meet his maker in untimely death. The story of the fall of mankind ends with the story of the sons of Adam, the sons of Man, and this story ends with one brother murdering another. That is the story of Cain and Abel. What we will consider for now is how this story is centered not simply sin but also sacrifice, another prophecy of the passion of our Lord.
The story of Cain (name meaning: possession) and Abel (breath, vapor, or vanity) is a veiled commentary on proper worship. For Abel the keep of sheep offers the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions and "the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell." Cain offered an offering of the fruit of the ground, the ground which is cursed, an offering which required minimal sacrifice. Abel's offering was the best portions of his sacrifice to God.
The writer of Hebrews records, "By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he received approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts; he died, but through his faith he is still speaking." And Jesus amidst decrying the work of the false religionists of his time said that "upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar." The murder of Abel was our first example of martyrdom, murdered by his brother for offering an acceptable sacrifice than Cain.
As the fulfillment of the Story of Cain and Abel, Christ himself would be offered up by his own kinsmen, the priests of his time, a pure and acceptable sacrifice. They had Christ sentenced to death and hung on a dead tree, little did they know the plan of salvation accomplished through the pure offering of Christ on the cross. For in his pure offering, the kingdom of heaven begins to invade earth. The true son of God restores mankind in full sonship, once again making a pure sacrifice in service to a righteous God who offers forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation by the work of his Son.
"For God so loved the world that he offered his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Hence, "he came to his own home, and to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."
And so, all the details that went wrong in the story of the fall of mankind - the marring of the image of God and our sonship, the inability to obey God and truly serve our heavenly Father, our fall into sin and covenant with death and the devil, the sacrifice required to restore us in his presence, and the promise of eternal salvation to come in the woman and her seed. All the riddles miraculously fulfilled in the passion of our Lord, who restores us to sonship and offers the bread of life from the cross of death which is transformed into our tree of life. In fact, the Lord's prayer has the reversal, restoration, and fulfillment of all of these themes which were seemingly lost to us in the fall into sin of mankind. For Christ re-establishes the kingdom of God, our obedience to the Father and his holy will, access to the tree of life, forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from temptation and evil.
Let us hear how Christ teaches us to pray in the times of the New Covenant,
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Now and forever. Amen.